Mount Greylock Regionalization Group Holds First Meeting
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Stephen Hemman of Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools outlines the steps for regionalization. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The committee charged with exploring expanded regionalization of the Mount Greylock Regional School District has begun a process that it hopes will lead to a recommendation to the full School Committee by some time this summer.
The Regional District Agreement Committee, a 15-member task force of school officials, town officials, School Committee members and teachers held its first meeting on Wednesday night at the high school.
The group heard a brief presentation from the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools outlining the process ahead of them and then began to delve into some of the issues they expect to deal with along the way.
Stephen Hemman, who also will serve as a communications consultant to the committee, explained that it is in the Phase I, three-step process, and the first task at hand is to complete a feasability study.
The committee was created by the School Committee to determine whether it should invite the towns of Williamstown and Lanesborough to add their elementary schools to a district that already serves the two towns for students in Grades 7 through 12.
The hope is that by expanding the district to include Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary schools, it can achieve greater efficiency through economies of scale and better serve its student populations. The two elementary schools are already part of Superintendancy Union 71, through which they share a superintendent, Rose Ellis, with the Mount Greylock district, as the "Tri-District."
A financial consultant with MARS explained that Ellis and her staff are currently spending more time on administrative details than they would if the three districts were combined.
"The cost savings [of regionalization] are not overly apparent in the process," David Tobin told the committee via cell phone. "The cost savings comes in efficiency.
"You can always point people to the administrative side of the (Massachusets Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) website. There are 109 different reports required for each school district to file during the year. That requires staff work and professionals to manage it.
"In your case, that's currently being done three times each year."
Lightening the paperwork load would free administrators to spend more time working on educational matters and actually serving the students, Hemman said.
School Committee member Chris Dodig, who served on the committee that initiated the expansion of McCann Technical School's region to include Cheshire and Lanesborough, said one of the arguments that tipped the scale in favor of the towns joining the district was that it was more cost effective to be in the district than to tuition their students into the North Adams school.
Dodig argued on Wednesday night that the Mount Greylock regionalization committee should consider asking the neighboring towns of New Ashford and Hancock to consider joining the district while the regional agreement is under review anyway. Currently, New Ashford tuitions its elementary students into Lanesborough, and both towns tuition their junior and senior high school students into Mount Greylock.
While some cost savings could accrue from greater regionalization, a member of the Lanesborough Finance Committee serving on the task force cautioned his colleagues against using fiscal arguments to convince people that regionalization is the way to go.
"The Lanesborough budget is $10 million, and $6.2 million goes to the schools," Al Terranova said. "Maybe the [school portion] would be 60 percent instead of 62 percent [under regionalization]. But from my experience, it's not going to save $3 million. We're going down the wrong road if we say it's going to bring all these great savings."
The chairman of the committee agreed.
"It's a fair point," said Carolyn Greene, who also chairs the Mount Greylock School Committee. "It may come down to educational and administrative benefits. There may be some savings, but it may not be astronomical."
What is more certain is that if the Mount Greylock is accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority program, it stands to receive a higher reimbursement for any future building project if the district expands.
According to the reimbursement rate calculator on the MSBA's website, the authority can award up to six "incentive points" for a "newly formed regional school district." Although the Mount Greylock district itself is not new, officials hope an expansion to include the elementary schools — or more towns as Dodig is suggested — would weigh in their favor.
Hemman encouraged that notion on Wednesday.
"That can influence [MSBA]," he said. "[State Department of Education] always encourages expanded regionalization."
The regionalization committee's charge is to make a recommendation to the School Committee, which has the power to invite other towns or schools to join the district. In order to support the regionalization effort, the Mount Greylock district has a state grant to pay for consultants, and Hemman said Wednesday it can use that grant to examine not only LES and WES but also the neighboring towns.
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Carolyn Greene, right, said the decision may come down to educational and administrative benefits. |
If the Mount Greylock committee ultimately decides to invite anyone to join the district, the question would go to a vote of the towns that are invited. The soonest that vote could occur would be in a special town meeting in September, Greene said on Wednesday.
Between now and then, part of the committee's job would be to educate voters and take the temperature of the electorate, Hemman said.
Williamstown Elementary teacher Tricia Bitteker said it could be a challenge to convince some residents to surrender local control over their elementary schools.
"Beyond the financial aspect, the schools are concerned about losing their identities," Bitteker said. "We need to reassure community members about not losing their identity. We have strong schools represented at this table, and we don't want to lose what they built."
Bitteker was joined by Lanesborough teacher Stacy Parsons; Lyndon Moore from the faculty at Mount Greylock did not attend Wednesday's inaugural meeting of the committee.
Other committee members include: Tri-District curriculum coordinator Mary MacDonald, Williamstown School Committee members Dan Caplinger and Chairwoman Margaret McCommish, Mount Greylock School Committee member Sheila Hebert, Lanesborough School Committee member Jim Moriarty, Williamstown Finance Committee member Paula Consolini, Tri-District legal consultant Russell Dupere and Williamstown Selectman Ronald Turbin.
Tags: MGRHS, regionalization, school district,
